The skin is the protective envelope of surface of the body against the superficial invasion of bacteria. Whenever the skin is assulted via abrasions (scuffing), punctures or lacerations, missles, surgical incisions etc. the opportunity for the invasion by bacteria inherent in the environment (clothing, earth contaminants etc.), foreign bodies and the adjacent skin itself, is presented. Only the ambient air has the least number of potential and opprotunistic bacterial invaders. These invasive bacteria thrive in an environment of body heat and moisture (blood and lymphatic fluid). Therefore it is important to expose the skin of a wound to the open air where bacteria do not thrive and a culture medium composed of blood and lymphatic fluid is not offered to the offending bacteria. Occluding the skin with the time honored occlusive bandages or dressings such as band aids (produced by Johnson and Johnson during the past 70 years) actually prevent the beneficial effect of the atmospheric air from deterring the growth of any bacteria that is already on the surrounding skin or carried on to the surface of the wound by clothing etc. These occlusive bandages stick to the wound and merely soak up lymphatic fluid and blood that may be present on the wound, thus providing a culture medium for bacterial growth and therefore shutting out the favorable effects of the ambient atmospheric air. For greater user (patient) comfort, wounds need to be protected from contact with the user""s clothing and injury from unexpected bumping into fixtures of the environment etc. A protective wound shield of sturdy enough material the prevents accidental and additional injury to the wound would compliment the drying effects of the perforations that are in the embodiment of the non occlusive wound shield.
The pertinent prior art in wound shields include U.S. Pat. No. 2,443,481 which is a device for treatment of wounds invented by Sene. Stumpt discloses an Arched Protective Adhesive bandage in U.S. Pat. No. 2,785,677 Warnecke discloses in U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,569 a Device for Protection of Wounds, Halderson discloses in U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,399 a Skin Protection Device. Fryslie discloses in U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,666 a Protection Bandaging Device. Augustine discloses in U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,160 a Flexible Non Contact Wound device. Dadinis discloses in U.S. Pat. No. 6,107,563 a Flex Vented Dome Wound Protector Treatment Device.
The purpose of the non occlusive protective wound shield is an endeavor to offer to Health Care Professionals and the general public a wound protector device that could change currently accepted and almost uniformily used occlusive dressings to cover most wounds. The wound shield is a simple one piece of thermoplastic material with a central convexity dome that prevents contact with the wound, has perforations in the convexity, rests on a continuous ovoid rim that has several tags composite with a rim for the purpose of anchoring the device to the skin surrounding the wound with roller adhesive tape or VELCRO strips. The wound shield protects the wound from external trauma and deters bacterial contamination. The wound shield is inexpensive to produce in large numbers and is reusable. The concept of a non occlusive protective wound device has been patented by the seven cited references inventors but their designs are cumbersome and lack the refinement that the wound shield possesses. These refinements provide more ease of application to the wound and provide greater patient comfort,